Leak of ammonia in refer

Big Katuna wrote:
The four door fridge won't fit through the door so its removing a window or windshield.

Ain't happening.

What you don't have a saws all.
Bill

The four door fridge won't fit through the door so its removing a window or windshield.

Ain't happening.

Ok her is my 2cents. You have a new enough unit I wonder why it failed? You are going to halve to do something. I would try a repair as you have such a new unit. Most of the time if you have an older unit it makes more sense to replace the cooling unit as there is most likely other places that may fail soon. Good luck
Bill

For us the difference between a repair & new same model was about $1000 on a large Dometic 4 door. I did salvage the motherboard & some other bits.

rhagfo wrote:

Veebyes wrote:
Been there. Dealt with that. Yes, you could have the cooling unit replaced but for the extra money you might as well get a new fridge & reset the clock for warrantys.

:h

Better than $1,000 extra for a warranty on the cabinet????
My experance with a replacement cooling unit was great, easy to replace worked great. Really didn't see a need to replace a perfectly good cabinet that would be a real waste of money.

I think many of the replacement cooling units will have a warranty on them too.

Veebyes wrote:
Been there. Dealt with that. Yes, you could have the cooling unit replaced but for the extra money you might as well get a new fridge & reset the clock for warrantys.

:h

Better than $1,000 extra for a warranty on the cabinet????
My experance with a replacement cooling unit was great, easy to replace worked great. Really didn't see a need to replace a perfectly good cabinet that would be a real waste of money.

Been there. Dealt with that. Yes, you could have the cooling unit replaced but for the extra money you might as well get a new fridge & reset the clock for warrantys.

Chris Bryant wrote:
Well, it certainly can be repaired. Whether a repair is the best bet is hard to say. Units are rebuilt in two basic ways- the "old school" repair is to find the leak, fix it, flush the system and recharge, over pressurizing to check for weak spots.This is what Ford's Refrigeration teaches and performs. I've done hundreds of this type, with very few failures.

The "new school" is to replace the part of the cooling unit that has the leak, - IOW, cut it out and add new tubing. These also have been pretty successful, a bit higher success rate than the patch type.

Chris this is an interesting post. It sounds like if you have an old refer and it leaks it probably has some blockage also, by replacing the the tubes does this eliminate the blockage also? If so in gross terms how much would the "old school" repair and the "new school" repair cost compared to a new refer?

Of the above responses only one actually repairs RVs for a living.....

I know Chris, if he was closer to you I would recommend using his service.

Locally we had a firm that repaired (not replaced) RV refer cooling units, they carried a 1 year warranty and he always was booked up months out... Then he had a heart-attack and decided to retire.

The ammonia isn't only thing that has leaked out...........so has ALL the hydrogen gas

Ammonia and hydrogen gas plus any water & sodium chromate that leaked (yellow residue) would have to be replaced and pressurized to 300-350#

Good luck finding a shop capable & equipped to do that.

Just one of the reasons 'replacement units/businesses' exist and are so abundant.